Jackie Chan's First Strike might be one of his best strikes

 

Directed and written by Stanley Tong

 Screenplay by

Nick Tramontane
Greg Mellott
Elliot Tong
Produced by Barbie Tung
Starring   
    Jackie Chan
    Wu fChen-chun
    Jackson Lou

Bill Tung

Nonna Grishayeva

 

Synopsis

A Hong Kong police detective, Jackie (Jackie Chan), works with the CIA to track a mysterious woman named Natasha (Grishajeva Nonna). She is suspected of delivering money to a terrorist, Jackson Tsui (Jackson Liu), who is trying to obtain a nuclear warhead from the Russian mob. Traveling from Hong Kong to the Ukraine to Australia, Chan aims to bust up the terrorist plot using his fists as much as his brains, doing battle underwater, on stilts and across mountain tops.

Review

So the movie was not what I expected, in a good way. 

I love this film. It has the same comedy aspect as Project A where it makes me wonder if it was promoted as a comedy-action. However, with First Strike there was comedy for most of the scenes, and even during a hotel chase.

The fight scenes in this movie have no comedy, which is great. Your only focus is on the great moves and tricks and hits from Jackie. The movie also has beautiful views from Brisbane, Australia. I live in Sydney, and trust me, in 2023, it doesn't compare to Brisbane in 1995. 

First Strike is an amazing film. Want to see an underwater fight, a helicopter stunt, ladder fight, hotel chase and Jackie Chan's butt? First Strike's the way to go. 

And no, John McClane from the Movie Forums, this film is NOT BETTER then "Police Story III: Supercop".

P.S. this is NOT the first time Jackie Chan fights for America. Rumble in The Bronx existed 2 years before this film.

Watch "Jackie Chan's First Strike" at the

https://archive.org/details/firststrike19961080ph264ac3dolbydigital5.1nickarad (American cut from New Line Cinema, 1997)
https://archive.org/details/first-strike-fw-reconstruction (1996 Hong Kong cut)

Rating: 8/10

Bruce Lee Screenshot Sunday II - Fist of Fury

 

I'd just beat him up right then and there.

It's about to go down.

The famous nunchaku scene!

This is just saying "rofl i beat you up so bad" with an accent.

How NOT to hold a Katana 101

I love how their mouths are both open..

I just killed this white guy. It's your turn now.

I possess the deadly nunchakus!!
 

I fought the strong! I did right the wrong!

 

Full review of Fist of Fury comes August 12. Tune in tomorrow for the review of First Strike.

Rumble in The Bronx makes New York look even crappier then it is

 I didn't know if I should've put 2001 in the title, because the way I watched the film was from an old FOX airing of the movie put up on the Internet Archive.

 

                                          Directed by STANLEY TONG

Written by    

Edward Tang

    Fibe Ma

Produced by Barbie Tung

Starring 

Jackie Chan

    Anita Mui

    Françoise Yip

Bill Tung

Garvin Cross

 Synopsis

Royal Hong Kong Police Force cop Ma Hon Keung (Jackie Chan) arrives in New York City for the wedding of his uncle Bill Wong (Bill Tung), a grocer who recently sold his Bronx store to the fetching Elaine (Anita Mui). After a biker gang bursts into the store to wreak havoc, Keung springs into action, giving up his vacation to defend the weak and protect the innocent with his extraordinary martial arts skills. As Keung investigates local gangs, he learns more about a criminal syndicate that needs to be brought to justice.

 

 Review

 So, if I had no expectations from the movie, I wouldn't be dissapointed. But this film introduced Jackie Chan to Americans, and was pretty bad which makes you understand why the American films from Jackie are horrible.

Firstly, Jackie's English prounounciation is pretty cringe (it was even worse back in 1980) but he was still learning English in the 1990s, so I can't blame him.

Secondly, Elaine is an annoying character who fondly reminds me of May from the first 3 Police Stories, who can't understand that JACKIE CHAN is a cop and when arresting bad people, he destroys a lot of things in the process of cop heroics. Ever watched Police Story or Police Assassins, Elaine?

 

Thirdly, the movie has no funny comedy scenes. A scene where Keung goes into Bill's store and says hi to a random woman thinking that she's his aunt is pretty normal. Until you get the rest of the scene were Bill is married to a black (mildly) obese woman. That scene just felt racist to me. Speaking of racism, all black characters are portrayed as loud annoying individuals, which is annoyingly stereotypical.. most of the time. (Chris Tucker, why?!)

Fourthly, the gang in New York is unrealistic and are bad villians. Tell me, if a movie has villians that aren't criminals would you find it interesting?

Anyways, the only parts of the film I liked were the fight scenes (there were only 2 good ones), the stunt, and the outtakes, which is particularly what I was waiting for.

So, uhh.. Rumble in The Bronx is a terrible cop movie and proves Americans like anything from America.

So here is my way of how to watch the film: Beginning of film, skip to the market fight. Then skip to next fight. Then next fight. Then big stunt. Then next fight. Next stunt. Then outtakes. Finish.

Watch Rumble in The Bronx at the 

https://archive.org/details/Rumble_In_The_Bronx_FOX_WOC_2001-03-15 (Fox Broadcasting Company edit from March 2001, 2 hours long with ads, nude butt scene at the end and swearing removed)

Rating: 4/10

Bruce Lee Screenshot Sunday I - The Big Boss

 

One of the (if not the) best intros to a film, with those kick butt scores from Wang Fu Ling and Peter Thomas.

I'll handle this. I only have 15 more minutes in the spotlight of the film until you take over.

Mandarin-exclusive scene: "Some people will do anything for revenge". This was the last scene filmed.

Showing of your Kung Fu skills, ey? Not good enough for a little dragon.

CHAAAARRRGGGGEEEEEE!!!

Mandarin-exclusive scene: The infamous bleeding shot.

I first saw this scene, thought Cheng was grabbing this dude by the belt. I found out he was grabbing him by the.. ow. No witty comment, just an ow.
 

I will get you like your father got my cousins.

A few minutes later, Cheng realises he doesn't need a knife.

He just needs an angry face.

"Karatee and kong foo, the explosive combination that gives you the biggest kick of your life! Fists of Fury! Rated R."

Welp, that's all. Tune in tommorow for the review of my least favourite Jackie Chan film, Rumble in The Bronx. Full review of THE BIG BOSS comes out August 5 this year.

Super Cop: The perfect action film?

 I know some of you might be angry about me calling the film Super Cop and not Police Story 3 as it was released in Australia, but the version of the film I downloaded and watched was the 1996 Dimension Films cut, so I can't review the original version if I never watched it.

Produced by and starring Jackie Chan

Directed by Stanley Tong
Written by 

Edward Tang
Ma Fibe
Yee Lee Wai
Produced by 

Willie Chan
Edward Tang
Leonard Ho

Starring   
    Michelle Khan
    Maggie Cheung
    Ken Tsang
    Yuen Wah
    Bill Tung
    Josephine Koo
    Wong Siu

Synopsis

To infiltrate a drug cartel, Royal Hong Kong Police Force Inspector Kevin Chan (Jackie Chan) goes undercover in a Chinese prison. There, he earns the trust of Panther (Yuen Wah), a cartel member, by breaking him out of prison. With the help of another undercover agent, Jessica Yang, (Michelle Khan), they travel to Hong Kong and join up with Panther's gang. Ka Kui is accepted by the gang's leader (Ken Tsang), but his operation is jeopardized when Kevin's girlfriend, May (Maggie Cheung) accidentally reveals his true identity.

Review

Supercop is easily the best work in the Police Story series. Jackie Chan and his stunt team went all out on this one. Unlike First Strike which was overloaded with comedy (like putting too much salt on a food), the comedy in this was funny and subtle.

Anyway, Michelle Khan is a great actress, and this is the movie that introduced me to her. Her movies are insane, and soon enough you'll be seeing more of her on this site (infact, reviews of Supercop 2 and Yes Madam are coming soon)

Super Cop is one of the best Chan films ever. It must have taken months to come up with choreography. Jackie Chan is a legend. This movie is one you wish never ever ended, unlike it's spinoff, Supercop 2, which I gave up on watching after 2 minutes. I'll be watching it again for the sake of the blog. 

(edit 2.1.24 - I watched the movie on Dec. 16 2023. A review is coming in June.)

Not to mention, Dimension Film and Miramax's edit and voice casting choice of films is actually amazing, including this one, and it's actually great they got Chan and Khan to voice for the film. Many would complain about the American editing of this franchise, but especially this movie, I actually enjoyed it! In fact, it was even better then the Hong Kong version. I'm not exageratting when I say this movie is the best movie of the whole 1990s. Watch it for yourself!

Superheroes? Forget them. We have the one and only Supercop.

Watch Supercop at the

Original Hong Kong version from 1992 (Cantonese audio, English subtitles) - https://archive.org/details/police-story-3

Rating: 10/10 

Die Hard with a Vengeance - Action-packed and realistic

 Think fast. Look alive. Die Hard - with a vengeance.

 Directed by John McTiernan

Screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh

Based on   

    Simon Says by Jonathan Heinsleigh

Produced by   

    John McTiernan

    Michael Tadross

Starring   

    Bruce Willis

    Jeremy Irons

    Samuel L. Jackson

    Graham Greene

    Colleen Camp

    Larry Bryggman

    Sam Phillips

Release date: May 19, 1995 

May 25, 1995 (Australia) 

 

Synopsis

Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) is now divorced, alcoholic and jobless after getting fired for his reckless behavior and bad attitude. He is called back into action, however, when a cryptic terrorist (Jeremy Irons) takes New York City hostage in a lethal game of "Simon Says" and refuses to speak with anyone but McClane. Teaming up with a street-savvy electrician named Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson), McClane dashes through the city, trying to stay one step ahead of a murderous plot.

Review 

Die Hard 3 is the perfect action movie. Okay, so maybe half the movies I've watched are better then this, but Samuel and Bruce make a great duel, and the fight choreography is amazing in the movie. While the movie is not as good as Die Hard and Die Harder, it still has the same feel and even more awesome scenes. Die Hard 3 is a great recommendation, and if you have nothing better to do, then you should probably be watching this movie.

Yippie ki yay, mother----er.

Watch Die Hard on

https://tubitv.com/movies/622895/die-hard-with-a-vengeance

Rating: 7/10

 

Let's have a drink because of how awesome Drunken Master II is

My review of a masterpiece

 

Directed by and starring Lau Ka Leung

Co-directed by and starring Jackie Chan

Screenplay by 

Edward Tang

    Tong Man-ming

    Yuen Chieh-chi

Produced by   

    Eric Tsang

    Edward Tang

    Barbie Tung

Starring   

    Anita Mui

    Ti Lung

    Felix Wong

    Ho Wing-fong

    Chin Ka-lok

    Lau Ka-yung

    Ram Cheung

    Ken Lo

    Ho-Sung Pak

    Andy Lau

    Yvonne Yung

    Suki Kwan

    Vindy Chan

Release date: February 3, 1994

 

Synopsis

 From a land where honour and tradition reign, comes the legend of a martial-arts hero unlike any other -- the "Drunken Master" -- who can turn just one drink into devastation and humiliation for his enemies. His technique is fast, furious... and powerfully funny. Fei-hung Wong (Jackie Chan), a young martial artist who knows the ways of Drunken Boxing is caught between respecting his pacifist father's wishes or stopping a group of disrespectful foreigners from stealing precious artifacts when Wong Fei-Hung is unwittingly caught in a battle between smugglers who want to steal ancient Chinese artefacts and loyalists who are determined to save the pieces from leaving the country.

Review

Drunken Master II / The Legend of Drunken Master was Jackie Chan's first traditional martial arts film for 12 years since the release of Dragon Lord (1982). While he hadn't done any martial arts films for twelve years, wow. He definetly improved with DRUNKEN MASTER 2!

Drunken Master 2 is the pinnacle of Hong Kong 90s action films right beside the US cut of Supercop (1995). Watching as Chan gets his butt beat, you know he's gonna win but it's super interesting to see. The movie also has an inpeccable soundtrack in both versions, scored by William Hu in the original version and Micheal Wandmacher in the Dimension Films / Miramix re-release. 

I'm not saying that Micheal W's is bad, but it's like store-bought pizza. The real thing is better, and in this case the real thing is William Hu's score. Micheal W's score is just "durr insert Asian noises" and so is the original, but because it's about an Asian fighting style. Not to mention it actually uses Asian instruments beautifully. William takes the win.

The movie also teaches a lesson to drinking and all the bad things that happen to Fei-hung (getting beat up, disowned AGAIN just like in Drunken Master 1, and brain damage at the end of Hong Kong's OG version of the film) unlike 1978's Drunken Master, which glorified drinking. 

The film shows a lesson, has impeccable music and fight choreography, and a mix of Lau Kar-leung's serious action which is more respectful and accurate to actual Drunken Boxing / Drunken Fist / Drunken Fairy / Drunken Monkey (Jui kuen/Zui quan) Jackie Chan's comedy kung fu.

 The movie also has multiple scenes with comedy during fights, like when Kei-ying fought his own son and Fei-Hung started touching his nose and saying "Oh, papa ha ha what a cute nose!" and when Anita Mui's character (Wong Ling) fakes pregnancy to not get her stepson in trouble, and when Fei-hung spits out kerosene on a burning rod and he looks at the flame then to Ken Lo with a "Huh, cool." face then goes back to beating him up. Same with when Fei Hung throws a Drunkfit (Temper tantrum) right in the middle of the fight and breaks a box then goes back to fighting him, then at the end of the fight Fei hung blows a bubble out his mouth, has a fazed/shocked expression then falls unconscious to the ground.

Anyways, Let us have a non-alchaholic drink to how amazing this movie is.

Watch The Drunken Master II on

https://archive.org/details/TheLegendOfTheDrunkMaster21994 (1994 Warner Bros version)

The Legend of Drunken Master - English re-dub, 2000 Dimension Films version

https://archive.org/details/the-legend-of-drunken-master

Rating: 10/10

Believe's rating: 9/10